Lucille Ball
I was going through some of my old photos and came across one that someone took of me with Paramount Studios historical consultant, Gary DeVaugn, in front of the former soundstage for The Lucy Show. The photo was taken back when I was a page on the Paramount lot. Gary was usually around the Paramount lot and available to share his wisdom on the history of the studio and all things Hollywood. As you can imagine, being the Hollywood history fan that I am, I used to try and get as many stories out of Gary as I could. I probably drove the man crazy!
To get a sense of the kind of stories I was able to learn from Gary, here is a behind the scenes look at Lucille Ball's (and Ginger Rogers') dressing room on the old Desilu Studios lot (now part of the Paramount Studios lot). The video is filmed and narrated by Gary.
Lucille Ball's dressing room
Is that a great video or what?! You just got a tour inside a Hollywood Legend's former dressing room. Now you won't get to see the inside of this building if you take the Paramount Studios tour, but you will get to see the exterior and what is known as Lucy Park across from the dressing room.
Lucille Ball's Office @ Desilu Studios
Above is a photo of where Lucille Ball's office was when this was Desilu Studios. Before it was Desilu it was RKO Studios. Now it is part of the Paramount Studios lot. Looking at the photo below you will see "Lucy Park," which not only serves as a park area on the lot, but also, sometimes as a filming location.
The "Chevalier building" in Lucy Park
Lucy Park
"Lucky Stage 25" next to "Lucy Park"
Above is another photo of Lucy Park and in this shot we can see the exterior wall of soundstage 25. This soundstage is where they used to film The Lucy Show, as well as Bosom Buddies, Cheers, and Frasier. Where the blue awning is would have been the entrance to Lucy's stage dressing room "the leading ladies dressing room" as Gary refers to it in the video, which had direct access to the soundstage. Now, don't confuse this dressing room with Lucy's other one in the video which is located across from the park in the Bob Hope building.
Robby Cress & Gary DeVaughn
Above is the photo I mentioned at the start of myself with Gary
You're thoughts?
17 comments:
I love it!!
That bathroom is too cool - can't believe it hasn't been remodeled! Thanks for sharing that great video - I am envious!
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Magnificent! Thank you.
I love this!
I love your blog and this post is AWESOME!! You find the neatest things and anything Lucy related is a treasure!
Loved this!
Love that bathroom! Thanks for the tour!
I've been on the Paramount lot many times, but have never ventured into this particular dressing room and did not know its history. Thank you for sharing. You did a really nice job with the video presentation.
Don't you wish that you could see it as it was back then? It's not hard to imagine.
Thanks for the comment Hollywood Haiku. Actually, the video footage was shot by Gary DeVaughn. The photographs were taken by myself. I definitely wish I could see the dressing room the way it appeared back in the leading ladies days!
THAT was great.
Incredible post!! That bathroom is to die for.
What a great post no doubt. It's a remotely sad one for me though. I wish all things like this would be perserved.
The fact that it used to be the RKO lot makes me wonder if this is were Citizen Kane was filmed?
Hi Matthew,
Thanks for the comment. And to answer your question, yes, some of Citizen Kane was filmed at this area of the lot back when it was RKO. If you ever tour the Paramount Studios there are plaques that list some of the features and television programs that have been filmed in each soundstage and Citizen Kane is one of the films listed.
i am looking to do some paramount research / do you have contact info for greg devaughn?
thank
billahorn@gmail.com
What a fantastic video! I am just so thrilled to have come across your blog, you have such interesting information on here! Keep up the great work!
"Lucky Stage 25" can be seen in the first episode of season 2 of "Mannix." The title of the episode is "The Silent Cry."
The fieldstone facade is the one used as the home of the deaf woman character, played by Audree Norton.
In fact, "Mannix" makes great use of all of the Paramount buildings, shops, parks, wharehouses and alleyways, in many of the shows episodes.
The exterior of Mannix's office, 17Paseo Verde, is a set on the Paramount lot. It looks like it had been built for a picture, but I haven't been able to find any information about it.
I have seen a satellite photo, from 1972, of the Paramount lot showing the office facade along Melrose Ave. However, after the series ended in 1975, the set was torn down and it is a parking area today.
The show also used a nearby grassy rectangle as the center of town. It was surrounded by many fake storefronts.
From watching the recently released DVDs, I can see that they used one aluminum siding covered wall (incidentally, right across from Mannix's office) to represent a prison, a drug wharehouse, and a publisher.
It has been fun discovering these facts.
Thank You, Kevin
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